In the four hundred and fiftieth year since Shakespeare’s birth, this conference seeks to explore questions of authority for Shakespeare, in Shakespeare, and about Shakespeare. It aims to investigate the relationship between text, power, and authority, both in the writing of Shakespeare and in writing about Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s works ask us repeatedly to think about what constitutes authority, about where authority lies, and about the performance of authority. Shakespeare has also himself repeatedly been used as a form of cultural capital and authority, and we therefore also welcome contributions that explore some of the different ways in which his plays and poems have been deployed in various times and places. Shakespeare’s works prompt us to think about textual authority, too. What is textual authority? What makes one text more authoritative than another? How have ideas of textual authority changed over time, and what, politically, is at stake in these changes?

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Shakespeare’s biblical and classical authorities

Monarchy and sovereignty in Shakespeare’s works

Democracy and Republicanism in Shakespeare’s works

The representation and performance of power in Shakespeare’s works

Editing Shakespeare

Shakespeare and politics

Shakespeare(s) past and present

Re-writing and adapting Shakespeare

Writing about Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s critics and readers

Shakespeare on stage and screen

Shakespeare and copyright

Shakespeare and nationhood/identity (in the year of the Scottish referendum on independence, we particularly welcome proposals on Shakespeare and Scotland)

Shakespeare and institutional power

Teaching Shakespeare

The conference programme will include lectures, papers, workshops, seminars, performances, and excursions.

We welcome proposals for papers or presentations (20 minutes), panels (90 minutes) or workshops (90 mins) on any aspect of the conference theme, broadly interpreted. Abstracts (250 words or less) should be sent to
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by 31 Jan 2014.

Participants must be members of the British Shakespeare Association at the time of the conference. Details of how to join can be found on the conference website: http://shakespeare.stir.ac.uk/